"Let's try kimchi."
Translation:김치를 먹어봅시다.
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It is not.
세요 is polite form for imperative sentence, while ㅂ시다 is honorific form for propositive sentence.
Order =/= invitation
No, that's a command "try the kimchi (please)". Adding ㅂ시다/십시다 is the formal way of saying "let's"
보자 is the propositive/hortative conjugation of 보다 at 해라체 ("written speech level") as opposed to the formal speech level of the given sentence.
This speech level is typically reserved for written Korean: it is a formal, non-polite speech level. When spoken, it is considered forceful when talking to your social equals and inferiors and rude when talking to your social superiors.
Can somebody explain the grammar point here please? I know 먹다 and -ㅂ시다 but 먹어보다..?
Basically adding 아/어/여보다 to a verb in the way it's done here gives it the meaning "to try to ____ (the original verb)" For example: 이것은 아직 안 먹어봤어요 - "I haven't tried to eat this" as in "I haven't tried this food".
A good way to remember this is that 보다 is "to see", so you can think of it as trying something "to see if you like it"! I don't think that has anything to do with the actual reason 보다 is used, but it might be helpful for remembering.
Using "too see" to mean "to try" is common in the languages in East Asia. FYI.
I believe the correct verb conjugation to use is "드셔보십니다"
먹다 → 드시다 → 드셔보다 → 드셔보시다 → 드셔보십니다
Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/2jfy24/q_honorific_%EC%8B%9C_in_compound_verb_structures/
Why is the topic particle incorrect here? I struggle to know when I should and should not use it. And I was so pleased that I had managed to get the 먹어보십시오 bit right...
The topic particle is used to mark the topic of a sentence or to support emphasis placed on a word within a sentence.
In "Let's try kimchi.", the word "kimchi" is the object of the verb "try". So one valid translation would have the object tagged by the object marker:
김치를 먹어봅시다 = "Let's try kimchi."
It is also valid to mark this noun with a topic marker instead. In this situation, it supports a contrasting emphasis:
김치는 먹어봅시다 = "Let's try kimchi (as opposed to something else)."